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"Sketching is one of my passions. I don't feel comfortable when I leave home without a sketchbook and some pens in my bag. I think that my way to put things in my memory is to draw them. And taking pictures isn't the same thing.

I live in a very dynamic surrounding — Israel is a warm country with warm weather and warm people. Of course, we have seashores, which calm us a little bit. I love to sit in a corner of some Tel-Aviv coffee shop and explore relationships: between people, their environment, between myself. All this unique local mix of cultures, languages and styles is always a great source for inspiration. You need to be fast, because, as I said, everything is very dynamic. But that's why I love it so much.

Sometimes, I look around, and I find some usual items like sugar bags or napkins. I use them in my drawings to show the atmosphere. Sometimes I draw directly on placemats."

"The dictionary says that a hobby is “an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation.” Although urban sketching certainly provides both pleasure and relaxation, I don’t think of it as my hobby. I think of it more as a way of life – something that has become such a normal part of my everydayness that it shapes how I view the world.

For most of my life I had both the fear of drawing as well as the desire to draw. In 2011, inspired by Gabi Campanario’s Seattle Sketcher column, I finally decided to overcome the fear. His drawings of Seattle – my birthplace and lifelong home – were of sights that I had seen many times, yet had never truly seen. I wanted to learn to see, and therefore experience, those locations (and any new ones that I travel to) more completely. Part 8 of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto, to “show the world, one drawing at a time,” has a flip side: Sketching enables me to see my own world, one drawing at a time.

In the last four years, it is not an exaggeration to say that Urban Sketchers has changed my life. I have met and sketched with many wonderful people around the globe, either at symposiums or during other travel, because the USk network brought us together. I sketch almost weekly with my local group, sharing sketches, art supplies and friendship. Even when I stay home and enjoy sketches online, I am still a part of that rich network, learning with every sketch about other people’s lives.

In May, my husband Greg and I went to France for the first time, and I sketched the Eiffel Tower. Sketching one of the world’s most famous icons felt like a dream come true – the ultimate in urban sketching. But although I can’t resist sketching world-famous icons whenever I’m fortunate enough to see them, for me, urban sketching is much more than that.

Urban sketching is a tree with its middle chopped away to accommodate Seattle’s ubiquitous power lines. It’s about a couple of women chatting over coffee, or about workers roofing the house next door. It’s about an excavator filling a hole where a cherry tree once stood. Or the Tibetan monastery I drive by frequently that I couldn’t resist because it’s bright orange. Urban sketching is a string band performing at a local farmers’ market – or perhaps in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Celebrating the mundane as well as the famous is what urban sketching is all about. My sketches are not necessarily about “special” moments; they are moments made special because I sketched them."

Tina has been editor of Drawing Attention since 2013 and now serves on the Urban Sketchers editorial board. See more of her sketches on her blog, on Flickr and on Instagram.

"I was born in Mumbai (Bombay) and lived in different parts of India until I moved to San Jose, California, where I now live.

Travel inspires my art, but, traveling or not, I try to view the world around me as a traveller would; so whether I’m capturing a moment of calm on the banks of the Ganges in India, or sketching over coffee at my local coffee shop, I aim to look deeply, and with wonder, at both the everyday and the exotic, the old and the new.

I love color. My sketch kit consists of Extra Fine Sharpies (the fact that they bleed into the paper as soon as they touch it works really well for me—it forces me to work super-quick), a small set of Prismacolor pencils and a little watercolor travel set".• Blog• Flickr

"I was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where I studied architecture. I moved to Kassel (Germany) in 1999 to accomplish a master degree.
Although I have always drawn and paint, it was not until I started studying in the Uni-Kassel, that I started keeping a travel sketchbook. I had a teacher there who used to do a lot of sketches when he travelled on university excursions. When he retired, I helped to organize an exhibition of his sketches. He brought a huge box full of sketchbooks he had filled since he was an architecture student. I spent a whole day selecting the most interesting drawings. It was a wonderful experience that opened my eyes to a new world.
In the last 10 years I have the feeling of being in a long journey. I like to discover the cities where I live, to understand why a place is the way it is and what makes it different and unique from others. Drawing is for me a way to learn to love a place, to become part of it.
I like to draw architecture but I am more attracted to urban scenery, portraying how people live in the city. Since I’m a foreigner, everything that locals find normal and taken-for-granted, for me is exotic. I always carry a small watercolor travel set from Windsor and Newton and my sketchbook in my bag.
I always thought that drawing was a solitary experience until I found Urban Sketchers. It was amazing to find so many people doing the same thing. It is a great place to share!"
• Omar's blog.
• Omar's art on flickr.
• Omar's website.

The 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium will take place in Barcelona, July 11-13, 2013.Urban Sketchers is excited to be collaborating with a city rich in culture and design for this three-day sketching event, and to have the support of Barcelona’s city hall, Ajuntament de Barcelona.Barcelona will be a big attraction for local and international sketching enthusiasts to gather for workshops, panels and lectures. Over 100 sketchers and instructors will gather for the three-day conference to sketch the sites and people of Barcelona. The sketchers will assemble daily at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), before heading out into the city for hand-on workshops."It was a tough decision to pick the host city of our 4th international symposium, but Barcelona stood out among the running candidates. We have a great local community of urban sketchers ready to make this a fantastic event in a city that is pure eye-candy for anyone who loves to draw,” said Urban Sketchers founder Gabriel Campanario, a Spanish journalist and illustrator based in Seattle, WA.Sketching workshops will be led by a group of local and international instructors that is sure to include architects, illustrators, artists, and educators. A full list of workshops and instructors will be announced in January 2013.An established group of sketchers currently gathers regularly to sketch, and posts their work toUrban Sketchers Spain. This group is a meeting point for people who share a passion for drawing, and they will bring that passion to this endeavor.“We are excited to be hosting this year’s Symposium because it is going to be like introduce to your beloved friends your city and I love Barcelona and I want to show it to them. On the other hand, the Symposium has become as the social side of Urban Sketchers, the online drawing movement. It is once a year, we share, we learn, we draw and we show and all this is going to happen on July in my city and you all are welcome,” said Barcelona sketcher, local Symposium organizer, and Urban Sketchers board member Victor Martínez Escámez (Swasky).Other Barcelona Symposium organizers include local urban sketchers Antonio Baza (Shiem), Daniel Castro, Marta Castro, Isaac Duenyas, Eclectic Box, Sagar Fornies, Miguel Herranz (Freekhand), Lapin, Aleix Mataró, Yadira Reyes, Eduardo de Vicente, David Ramírez and Sílvia Xicola.The Barcelona Symposium logo was designed by Sagar, Freekhand, Eclectic Box and Yadira Reyes.The Ajuntament is also promoting drawing events (Barcelona dibuixa - Barcelona draws) in Barcelona in conjunction with the Symposium. Drawing workshops will be held every month leading up to the July Symposium, giving the general public a chance to participate.Previous Symposium host cities include Portland, Oregon US (2010); Lisbon, Portugal (2011); and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (2012). Websites for the Symposiums in these cities can be accessed from the Symposium Portal.Urban Sketchers is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing; promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel. We show the world, one drawing at a time.To receive updates about the 2013 Symposium and to be notified when registration opens, subscribe to the BCN Symposium 2013 Mailing List.CONTACTInternational media requests and sponsorship opportunitiesElizabeth Alleyelizabeth@urbansketchers.orgLocal media requests and sponsorship opportunitiesbarcelona2013@urbansketchers.orgGeneral questionsbarcelona2013@urbansketchers.orgUrban Sketchers site:http://www.urbansketchers.orgPrevious Symposium Websites:http://symposium.urbansketchers.org/